Vote for us: The profiles

In the final weeks of the campaign, The Times of Israel’s Matti Friedman interviewed and profiled six very different Knesset candidates. As voters choose their parties, here’s his reminder of some of the more compelling prospective MKs

Matti Friedman profiled six of the more compelling Knesset candidates over recent weeks, for a series of articles we called “In the running.”

1. A party of one

Renegade rabbi and politician Haim Amsalem, expelled from Shas for taking on the sacred cows of ultra-Orthodox politics, thinks Israel could learn a thing or two from his father’s Judaism

Haim Amsalem in Jerusalem, October 23, 2012 (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

2. Uniform off, an outspoken general takes on the political system

Elazar Stern brings his unique brand of blunt, Orthodox, centrist Zionism from the military to the 2013 election

Elazar Stern (photo credit: Kobi Gideon/Flash90)

3. The new (secular) face of religious Zionism

Ayelet Shaked wants to bring the ideology of the settlements from the West Bank into the Israeli mainstream. With her Jewish Home party surging in the polls, she might do just that

Ayelet Shaked, center, with Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, right. Shaked, who is not Orthodox, says her views are "identical to those of religious Zionism" (photo credit: Courtesy of Jewish Home/Ayelet Shaked) — Ayelet Shaked, center, with Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, right. Shaked, who is not Orthodox, says her views are “identical to those of religious Zionism” (photo credit: Courtesy of Jewish Home/Ayelet Shaked)

4. Israel can’t afford to sit and do nothing, says Labor’s new defense man

Omer Barlev — son of a former chief of staff, the ex-commander of one of the army’s most elite units and a hi-tech entrepreneur — knew Benjamin Netanyahu as a soldier. He has few kind words for him today

5. The new face of Likud

Until now, Danny Danon was a marginal character from the extremist back benches. In the next Knesset, he will be at the heart of Israel’s ruling party